Hand to Mouth

It's easy to feel insulated here.  We live in a good area with lots amenities and conveniences, but I never forget how close we are to those who aren't insulated at all from the cruelties of life.  This is the view from the military cemetery.  THIS is what most of metro Manila looks like.  THIS is where life happens for millions of people.  Fifty percent of Filipinos live on less than two dollars a day.  The reminders of this tenuous existence are all around us.

Our driver is actually an inContact driver, but he gladly works extra days for us.  He spent all day Monday driving us around- he worked for 10 hours and we paid him 1200 pesos, which is maybe thiry dollars.  He is so happy for the extra money that he will work any day we ask, even if it means that he is away from his family.  He lives in Pasig, which is an area just like the one pictured above.  Would you leave your family for 10 hours on Halloween to earn $27.90?  I didn't think so.  What is so amazing is that he is kind and gracious to us without fault- he is sweet to the girls and ready to be helpful in any way.  There's a dignity to him that I don't know I could personally maintain if our positions were reversed.

The people here love call centers because they employ so many people in jobs that are clean and safe.  Complaints about taking jobs out of the United States don't bother me anymore, because I have seen the difference that these jobs make for people here.  Frankly, the world is a lot bigger than the USA, and I don't apologize for feeling really great about employing foreign labor because these people are so damn grateful.  The paychecks for Bruce's office were late this week, and people (people who are blessed with steady, white collar jobs) were panicked.  One man had been waiting all week long to take his child to the doctor and without his paycheck there was no money for food and definitely no money for health care.  This is largely a cash society- these people can't float the charges on a credit card for groceries or a doctor's visit.  If you can't pay up front, then you are just out of luck.  It is gut wrenching to realize that even those who are in "good situations" by local standards live completely paycheck to paycheck.  They are on the brink of financial disaster all of the time.  I know that this same problem exists at home, but I can guarantee you that it is nowhere near the scale that we have seen here.  (Related to this: prostitution and sex trafficking are big problems here, but I truly believe that it is actually a symptom of the ongoing poverty.)

I told Bruce today that I was getting low on groceries-a grocery trip is something of an undertaking because I have to schedule it with our driver.  I definitely don't have food storage here- we buy for the week and other than some ramen noodles or mac and cheese boxes I don't have much else.  It actually was stressing me out a little to not have fresh fruit and to be almost out of milk.  I couldn't help but imagine how it would feel to live with those feelings day in and day out.  I think the stress would eat me alive.  Yet, for most of the people who live here, that is their life.  There doesn't seem to be much of a safety net for people provided by the government, and although it seems popular right now to knock federal programs at home, I for one am not going to lay down my head tonight without thanking God for Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, WIC, and the rest.  I've started to see the pervasive and brutal realities of food and health insecurity and it is gut twisting.

Sometimes living here just makes me want to cry.